Luis immerses himself in the Animal Tribe, acquiring the nickname “Chin” due to his deformed jaw. The Animal Tribe, often shortened to AT, engages in warfare with a neighboring rival gang, the Sangra Diablos. In a shootout, one of Luis’ closest friends, Clavo, is shot and loses an eye. This assault sparks a war between the AT and the Sangras, and Clavo quits gang life. On a trip to the beach, Luis and his friends argue with a group of white surfer-looking boys, who turn out to be cops. The cops find drugs on Luis and his friends and arrest them before releasing the group to their parents. Luis explains that, in his mind, the police were just another gang, one directly contributing to the street violence he experiences.

A new friend named Yuk Yuk replaces Chavo in Luis’ los cuatro—his group of four close friends. The gang’s identity begins to shift. They increasingly identify themselves as Lomas—those from the hills—as opposed to the AT. Yuk Yuk introduces Luis to larger scale shoplifting, teaching him to lift “bikes, TVs, stereos, cameras, guns …” (75). These robberies sometimes involve weapons, which makes Luis uncomfortable, but Yuk Yuk insists.